Cox’s Bazar Runway Expansion: Hasina to break ground today
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to virtually inaugurate the ground breaking ceremony and unveil the foundation stone of the runway extension at Cox's Bazar Airport today morning.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (Caab) has taken the initiative to construct the longest runway in the country by extending the existing 9,000-feet runway by another 1,700 on the Bay of Bengal.
On February 9, the Caab signed a deal with the Chinese joint venture of Changjiang Yichang Waterway Engineering Bureau (CYWEB) and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) on the expansion of the runway.
According to project documents, the deadline to finish construction is May 10, 2024.
Under the agreement, the contractor will extend the runway towards the Maheshkhali channel through coastal land reclamation.
The government in 2019 took the initiative to expand the runway to upgrade it to international standards and offer foreign holidaymakers a hassle-free trip to the world's longest unbroken sea beach.
Once the work is complete and the runway operational, passengers on planes touching down at the airport will feel like they are landing on the Bay of Bengal, which will flank part of the runway.
The project is worth Tk 1,568.86 crore and will be funded by the Caab, sources at Caab said.
"Once the runway extension work will be completed by 2024, the airport is expected to become the aviation hub of the region," said Air Vice Marshal Mafidur Rahman, chairman of Caab.
He said they had originally planned to expand the runway by 3,000 feet on the sea.
"We had given the task to the Institute of Water Modelling and Buet to conduct a survey in this regard. A Dutch company was also involved in the survey," said the Caab chairman.
But due to objections of the Water Development Board, which said small islands in the area may be affected, they decided to limit the extension to 1,700 feet, he said.
The runway extension will be built by filling some parts of the sea on the Maheshkhali channel, Caab sources said.
At first geo tubes will be placed under the sea bed and then water will be removed through dredging. Later, the excavation process and sand filling activities will start, according to sources at Caab.
Then, the excavated area will be layered with sand, followed by concrete blocks being placed. The next phase would be the sand layer layout for the runway, Caab sources said.
There will then be a final layering process and pitch casting. This will create a runway and a dam to protect it from the sea. This will be followed by the decoration of the runway and installation of indicator lights.
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